Dell Latitude D520 review

Performance
For a basic business system, the Latitude D520 showed more than enough speed in our mobile benchmarks. It achieved an identical score to the Lenovo 3000 N100 configuration that we tested, which included a faster processor and a higher-end, discrete Nvidia GeForce Go 7300 graphics chip, and it blew the Toshiba Tecra S3 away. The Latitude D520's performance should be plenty for working in Microsoft Office and keeping up with email.

The Latitude D520 also finished far ahead in our battery tests: it lasted just 8 minutes shy of 5 hours, improving on its predecessor, the Latitude D510, by 50 minutes. The Lenovo, on the other hand, managed only 3 hours 9 minutes, and the Toshiba earned a worse 2 hours 35 minutes. For even better battery life, look to Lenovo's higher-end ThinkPad T60, which held out for nearly 6 hours.

Mobile application performance
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

BAPCo MobileMark2002 performance rating

Dell Latitude D520

291 

Dell Latitude D510

231 

Lenovo 3000 N100

211 

Toshiba Tecra S3

149 

Battery life
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

BAPCo MobileMark 2002 battery life in minutes

Dell Latitude D510

244 

Dell Latitude D520

214 

Lenovo 3000 N100

189 

Toshiba Tecra S3

155 

System configurations:
Dell Latitude D510
Windows XP Pro; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M 730; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM PC3200 400MHz; Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express (up to 128MB); Toshiba MK4026GAX 40GB 4,200rpm

Dell Latitude D520
Windows XP Pro; 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo T2300; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM PC4300 533MHz; Intel Mobile i945GM Express 256MB; Fujitsu MHV2040BH 40GB 5,400rpm

Lenovo 3000 N100
Windows XP Pro; 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo T2400; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM PC2700 333MHz; Nvidia GeForce Go7300 256MB ; Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 80GB 5,400rpm

Toshiba Tecra S3-S411TD
Windows XP Pro; 1.73GHz Intel Pentium M 740; 256MB DDR2 SDRAM PC2700 266MHz; Nvidia GeForce Go6600 64MB; Toshiba MK4032GSX 40GB 5,400rpm

Edited by Michelle Thatcher
Additional editing by Nick Hide